The Lillooet Indians are an important tribe of Salishan linguistic stock, in southern British Columbia. Formerly holding a mountainous territory of about one hundred miles in length from north to south, the area includes a river and lake of the same name. They are now settled upon reservations within the same territory, attached to Williams Lake and Fraser River agencies.

The Lillooet peoples lived by fishing, hunting, as well as the gathering of wild roots and berries. Salmon fishing was their most important industry, the fish being taken by spearing, by hook and line, by nets and by weirs, at favorite fishing stations. The catch would have been dried in the sun or smoked for preservation. Their ordinary hunting implement was a highly decorated flat bow with a cord made of sinew and arrows tipped with stone, copper, bone, or beaver teeth. The principal game animals were deer, caribou, bear, mountain goat, bighorn, beaver and the porcupine which was used for its quills. Traps, nooses, pitfalls, and deadfalls were all used as methods of hunting. Dogs were carefully trained for hunting, and were also a favorite food article. A great variety of roots was gathered, some of which were roasted in pits in the ground after the manner of camas. Berries were dried in large quantities, pressed into cakes, and used at home or traded to other tribes. Provisions were stored in cellars for winter supply or sale.

The winter house was sometimes a double-lined mat lodge, but more usually a semi-subterranean round structure, from eighteen to fifty feet in diameter, of logs lined with bark and covered with earth. Entrance was by a ladder through a hole in the roof, the projecting ends of the ladder and of the house posts being carved and painted with figures of the clan totem, in the style of the totem poles of the coast tribes. The ordinary summer dwelling was a rectangular communal structure of log framework and cedar boards, with bark roof, from thirty-five to seventy-five feet in length, with fireplaces ranged along the center to
accommodate from four to eight families. The bed platform was next the wall. The furnishing consisted chiefly of baskets, bags, and mats. They were expert basket weavers, and basket










making is still a principal industry in the tribe. Large closely-woven baskets were used for holding water in which to boil food by means of heated stones. Mats, blankets, and bags were woven from rushes, bark fiber, twisted strips of skin, and various kinds of animal hair, including that of a special breed of long-haired white dog now extinct. Knives, hammers, scrapers, etc., were of stone; bowls and dishes of wood. They were skilled in the making and use of canoes, both bark and dug-out, together with snowshoes for winter travel. Skins were dressed soft, but seldom smoked. Fire was obtained by means of the fire drill. Houses and much of their portable handiwork were adorned with native paint.